Unlocking Void (Book 3) (14 page)

“I would rather go somewhere else.”

“Guarded,” she sighed. “Pick a place, I will find you. Until then,” she leaned in, put a kiss on his cheek, and vanished.

He held his breath, feeling for kinetic energy to suddenly appear, but she did not return. He shifted back to Jaden, feeling more confused and alarmed.

Chapter 18

Another specter was on the loose in Aidenmar, sinking fire into the earth, smoldering the roots of trees. Trees emerged blazing everywhere without warning. Gabriel spent most of the day shifting a group of Mages around the epicenter. They eventually found the offending specter, a short Aidenmarian man, and doused him with water until he disappeared.

Robyn’s ring had been pinging all day and more than usual. With great reluctance he finally shifted to Kilkiny to see if there was a true crisis. He appeared in the anteroom. Aisling hotly debated with two men in red uniforms and white sashes around their shoulders marking them officers.

“Gabriel!” Aisling breathed. “Stars above! Gentlemen, please excuse me for a moment.” The men bowed and stepped into the hall. “
Where
have you been?”

He did not appreciate the tone. Aisling may have been his birth mother, but she had never acted like one nor been a part of his life. He viewed her like one of his subordinates than a real mother. “Rather busy.”

“Doing what? We have needed you here. Did you not feel Robyn’s summons?”

“What do you need me for?” he sighed.

“Firstly, you can go speak with your Queen. Then I need you to shift an army to the coast.”

“Where are they going?”

“Kinsten Kel.”

“Then tell them to be ready in an hour. I’ll be in the courtyard waiting.” He turned away from Robyn’s door, but Aisling grabbed his sleeve. He quickly swiped her hand away.

She stared at him with wide eyes. “I do not know what transpired between you two, but there is no reason for you to be so stubborn. Even Queens make mistakes.”

“I do not need assistance with my love life, and I would be
most
appreciative if everyone would keep to their own meddling.”

He turned to go, but she stepped between him and the door.

“I have never meddled in your life because I know you are strong enough to handle it. I also do not encourage a relationship with the Queen of Anatoly. But now I do so because you need her. You have always needed her. Do not forget she broke into her own palace to free you with complete disregard for her safety. Her love for you has not changed.”

Gabriel hung his head defeated and pinched the bridge of his nose. He opened his mouth to grapple for words but found none. He turned around and made for Robyn’s door.

She stood with her back to him between her desk and the window, gazing out with a forgotten paper in her hand. The guard in the hall closed the door behind him, and she turned at the sound. He took a defensive stance and folded his arms over his chest.

Her face brightened. “Gabriel,” she exclaimed breathlessly. “I’ve been summoning.”

“I’ve been ignoring it.”

She nodded faintly. “Will you sit for a while? A glass of cider perhaps?” She spoke with a tone he was unfamiliar with, a tone he could only describe as a mix of remorse and care.

“I can’t stay. I’m shifting your army somewhere.”

She rounded her desk. “I cannot thank you enough. We are at war.”

That was new. “With Arconia?”

“No, Shalaban.”

“Speaking of Arconia…” he paused and looked around.

“The Prince is elsewhere.”

“I hope you two are enjoying each other’s company,” he stated with a pinched look.

She could tell he was picking for a fight, but she ignored it. She perched on the edge of her desk, a position that lowered her height even further and placed her in a subservient position. He could tell what she was up to.

“I am—
so
sorry, Gabriel. I overreacted in a time when you needed me and…”

“Why is Shalaban attacking?”

She gave him a surprised look. “I need you to know I regret what I said.”

“Oh no, you shouldn’t. Everything you said was accurate. I am sullied. I probably did have a choice with most of them, but I chose to lie with them rather than be tied down every night and taken against my will. I shouldn’t have told you. I should have kept the lie going in hopes you wouldn’t find out until Arconia starts Classing Eight and Nines, and by then you would have had your own to worry about. But that’s fine. In my moment of greatest need, you turned your back on me. Wait until you hear what else I did under Nolen’s control. No, no, I probably shouldn’t tell you. You might attack my castle.” The more he spoke, the angrier he got. “I’m sorry it took me longer to come to your conclusions now that you’ve had a chance to be around other suitors. You were right to choose first. We aren’t made for each other.”

“That’s not what I meant!” she said wide eyed, “Gabriel, I love you!”

“You have an odd way of expressing it. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to deal with your army.”

He seized Void and zipped into the courtyard. Gabriel paced a fuming circle as he waited for the army. That woman touched a nerve thinking she could simply apologize and all would be forgiven. Of all the things he did under Nolen’s control, lying with the Arconians was the thing he was most ashamed of. At that point his will was broken, so he did not fight Nolen’s orders. Robyn was presumed dead, and he was doomed to die within weeks. There was nothing left to fight for, and he was just
too
tired
to try. He wished now he had.

An older Commander was in charge of the legion Gabriel was to transport east. The man gave Gabriel a look he was familiar with in Kilkiny. During his month in the Castrofax much of the palace had come to know his face and story. Now that he was free
and
Head Mage, he got quite a few looks of surprise.

“Star Breaker,” the man nodded with as much of a smile as wizened officers gave. “Good to see you.”

Gabriel had not heard that term in a while. Overhead the burst star still blazed by night, slowly fading with each evening. People had blamed Gabriel for the sudden celestial change, but his abilities could not reach so far. He did not recognize the man nor did he make it a habit of spending time in the soldiers’ wing. The Commander must have recognized him from the night he tried to escape with Robyn which resulted in a public flogging. That, or he was in Nolen’s Air Guard that Gabriel nearly destroyed the night of his capture.

“Kinsten Kel has a natural hillock barrier on the south side which is where I wager Prince Balien has camped his men. I would like to arrive south of them and march in.”

“I can articulate that,” Gabriel replied. Soldiers already assembled, some on horses and most carrying their bundles on their shoulders. Three Spirit Battle Mages in yellow mantles came to the front and gave Gabriel proper respectful nods. He recognized two from the night he was pulled from the dungeons. Both had stitched him back together as best as they were able. He motioned to the older of the two to come closer.

“Head Mage, wonderful t’ see you so well,” the man said in an Aidenmarian accent, ducking his head. “How might I be serving you?”

“I want you to report how the battle fairs, but I most importantly want to know if Prince Balien is injured. Stitch him up and send me a pigeon.”

“Of course, Head Mage, but it could take four or five days for a pigeon t’ reach you.”

Gabriel screwed his lips, thinking. “Do you wear a ring?” The man pulled a bronze ring from his thumb and willingly handed it over. Carefully, Gabriel wove a summons-pattern into the braiding and sank the hook in his chest. “Hold the ring like so,” he said and held it between thumb and forefinger, “for ten seconds. The ring will heat up when activated, and I will be sent a summons if you need me. I will arrive in minutes.”

“That is very kind o’ you, Head Mage,” the man smiled. “I will take good care o’ our Prince.”

The man returned to the ranks, and Gabriel raised a plinth of stone from the ground beneath him. “We are going to be doing something called a shift,” he began, folding his arms. “I am going to move you so fast that weeks of marching will be done in minutes. Since we move so quickly, you may get dizzy. Color and sound will elude you. I recommend closing your eyes until we arrive. Most imperative, you will need to make connection with the people around you. If you break that connection, you
will
die. Do I make myself clear?” The men nodded, and he moved to the center of the legion and repeated himself. He was not about to lose anyone to the spirit world.

The soldiers around each put a hand on him as Gabriel seized Void and set the pattern. A slow murmur of surprise and awe moved through the crowd as their vision changed. “Do not let go!” he yelled and fueled the shift.

It took no more than two minutes to skim the land. Gabriel knew the area a little, well enough to know where to set them down, and cut the pattern a few miles from where he suspected Balien to be. He excused himself and searched for his friend.

Balien’s army was camped around the southern end of the city in a section of rock formations. Gabriel deposited himself in the middle, getting more than one surprised look and a few swords drawn on him, but he confidently walked towards the center where Balien would be. The Prince’s flag waved from a tall white tent that Gabriel let himself into. It smelled of lavender.

Balien was the brother Gabriel never received, a foster-brother sent to spend the summers in Urima Manor. The blond man stood over a table with a large map spread out. Little characters denoting camped armies scattered around it. Balien looked up with the change of light and nearly knocked the table over.

“Brother!” Balien exclaimed and immediately embraced his friend. “It is good to see you. You are the last person I expected to come through that tent. Come in, come in. What brings you here?”

Gabriel picked up a stone from the ground and looked at the table map. He set it beside Balien’s army. “I brought you a legion of men. They should be here within the hour coming from the south.”

“My sister is a blessed creature.”

“What is happening here?”

Balien ran a hand through his floppy hair. “Shalaban asks for no quarry nor resolution. They simply plow their way through. I have tried to ask to speak with their General, but he will not have it, so now we hold the city.”

Gabriel looked at the map and traced a line from Kinsten Kel to Anatoly city. “How long can you hold them here?”

“They outman us nearly two to one. I doubt Robyn would want to send any more men as it would leave her City undefended, and you cannot be there always.”

“I am usually in Jaden these days.”

“Understandably so. Any word from the Arch Mages?”

“Oh yes, they broke through Jaden’s wards just long enough to get another Castrofax on my wrist. I had to cut it off.”

“I thought Castrofax were unbreakable.”

“No, the hand,” he said and waved it. “We fixed it in due time.”

“And I thought I had it rough bathing in a bucket. What did you do with the wristlet?”

“Hidden in Jaden.”

Balien nodded, looking far off into the map. “Have you ever thought about hunting them all down and destroying them?”

“Every day. I’m missing the black one, the glass one, and two silver pieces.”

“I will certainly let you know if I find them. How fairs my sister?”

Gabriel shrugged. “We don’t talk much anymore.”

Balien frowned. “
You
? Of all people I thought you two would…. It is not my place to judge. Do as you see fit.”

“This is why I call you brother.”

Balien grinned. “Since you came all this way, can I send you home with a remedy? Something to help you sleep perhaps?”

“You brought your herbs to a battle?”

Balien walked to a chest and rummaged around. “A battlefield is where they are most needed. Without enough Battle Mages to heal, we need lavender and tea tree and cinnamon to fight infection. Alcohol works but the men keep drinking it.” He opened ceramic jars and mixed them into a smaller one, muttering as he went. “Lavender, clary sage, neroli…ylang-ylang?” He frowned in Gabriel’s direction. “Is an aphrodisiac, and you….”

“I don’t want that.”

“We will skip it and add cedarwood and sandalwood. You should sleep fine. A few drops on your pillow will help you sleep. Just breathe it in,” he said, handing it over.

“I might have a nap right now.”

Balien gripped his shoulder. “I am immensely grateful to you for bringing me more soldiers. Do not stay a stranger. I may put you on the field if you show up again.”

“I wish I had more Mages to send you, but mine are scared out of their wits since the Arch Mages made it through. I will come when I can. Don’t get yourself killed in the meanwhile.”

Balien gave him a tight embrace and bowed. Gabriel stepped out of the tent and returned to the legion. They were only a mile out, so he left them to march unaided, making his way back to Jaden.

Mikelle was waiting for him, grinning more than usual in a way he could only describe as diabolical. “I have a gift for you!” she exclaimed and rushed out into the hall.

“What for?”

“For your swearing in. I could not have it delivered in time.” She came in holding a massive long-haired black cat with gold eyes and deposited it on his desk. He looked down at the cat that stood there lashing a huge tail.